Home>Careers: Preparing Students to Enter the Job Market

20.12.2023

Careers: Preparing Students to Enter the Job Market

Sciences Po actively assists students in their career planning and professional integration.

All of our initiatives are devised with the same aim in mind: to inspire students, to help kickstart their careers and to connect them with future employers and new professional opportunities.

Sciences Po Careers supports students with their professional integration, working alongside teaching staff, academic coordinators, careers advisers for specific courses, and the wider alumni network. 

Our main mission is to help students plan and prepare for professional life, right from their first year as undergraduates through to the final year of their Master’s degree. The service is also available to doctoral students and recent graduates. 

Interview with Anne Lesegretain, Director of Sciences Po Careers.

WHAT SUPPORT IS AVAILABLE TO SCIENCES PO STUDENTS?

Anne Lesegreatain
 Anne Lesegretain, Director of Sciences Po Careers

Sciences Po encourages “learning by doing”. This begins in the first year, with a month-long voluntary placement focused on civic engagement. Further opportunities for practical experience are available throughout the programme right up until graduation. Whether in an internship or employment context, our students and graduates must be able to put into practise the skills they have learned during their education: an understanding of global issues, an analysis of societal changes, the ability to work on complex projects in an international context… We work hard every day to help them achieve their goals.

Throughout their education, students can meet one-on-one with a careers advisor to discuss their options for graduate study and their career plans. To improve their CV, develop self-awareness and hone their interview skills, students can also participate in group workshops provided in French or English, during which they can meet and speak to other students in similar situations.

Does the professional support you provide evolve from the first year of undergraduate study through to master’s level?

During their one-on-one meetings, our advisors tailor their support to the needs of the student, helping them to better understand their goals and suggesting job search strategies that are suited to their experience. Meanwhile, students themselves can choose from online resources on the Sciences Po Careers website and take part in events based on their needs.  

WHAT OPPORTUNITIES ARE THERE TO MEET RECRUITERS?

Connecting students and employers is one of the main functions of Sciences Po Careers. Information and recruitment forums, business presentations and career roundtables enable students to learn more about the employers’ sectors, and find internship, apprenticeship and employment opportunities. These meetings are often in hybrid format, making them accessible to students from all our campuses as well as those on their third year abroad. This gives students the opportunity to connect with future employers, even while on exchange.

Staying on top of changes in the job market and in students' needs is an essential part of the planning process for our careers events. In 2023 for example, themes of ecological transition and positive-impact careers routinely guided our choice of speakers to take part in roundtables, as they represent an area of real interest for students. 

Highlights for students include:

  • The Sciences Po Careers Fair: A key annual event for all Sciences Po students and recent graduates. Each autumn, it brings together more than 1500 students who come to meet with numerous public bodies, international organisations and private sector businesses from different sectors such as consulting, luxury goods, media, industry, banks… A wide range of institutions that reflect the huge variety of opportunities available to our students. 
  • Sector-specific careers fairs: consulting and law fairs connect students with consulting firms or law firm staff.
  • The European Forum of Internships in Brussels: in partnership with the London School of Economics and the College of Europe, this forum enables students interested in a career specialising in European affairs - consulting firms, European institutions, think tanks - to find internship and job opportunities. 
  • The International Organisations Careers Fair is a valuable opportunity for students to find out more about international organisations, from career opportunities and recruitment processes to internship programmes and the profiles they typically look for.

WHAT ABOUT INTERNATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES?

50% of Sciences Po students come from overseas, and more than a third of our recent graduates start their career abroad. That makes international opportunities a priority for us.  Many of our international students are keen to stay in France to work, so we inform them of the options and help them to understand the specificities of the French job market. 

At the same time, many of our students want to live and work overseas, and we help equip them with the tools they need to make that happen. 

Focus groups are regularly organised with alumni that focus on the professional opportunities and careers of our graduates in a particular sector or geographic area. These provide an opportunity to hear and learn from graduates of all Sciences Po programmes, whose careers have taken them all over the world.

WHAT LINK DO YOU HAVE WITH THE SCIENCES PO GRADUATE NETWORK?

During their studies, our students regularly meet alumni at networking events, roundtables and other careers events. 

Students can then continue to expand this professional network throughout their lives, thanks to our community of 90,000 Sciences Po graduates working across various sectors and regions around the world. This valuable network is there for graduates to draw on at every stage of their professional lives.

Cover image caption: 2022 Sciences Po Careers Forum (credits: Claire Lise Havet / Sciences Po)

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